The Spell: Limited Edition Gatefold Double Vinyl with Signed Insert

Cellar Darling

US $31.99

Release Date 22 March 2019

In Stock

Product code

NB4532-1

Format

Double Vinyl LP

Label

Nuclear Blast

Limited edition Gatefold Double Vinyl with signed insert.

Cellar Darling’s second full-length The Spell weaves a dark fairytale for the modern era, told through heavy yet intricate, progressive folk rock, enchanting visual art and utterly immersive storytelling. The band began in 2016 after Anna Murphy (vocals, hurdy-gurdy), Merlin Sutter (drums) and Ivo Henzi (guitars and bass) left Swiss folk metallers Eluveitie, which they had all played in for over a decade. But they weren’t ready to end their musical journey together yet, and wanted to embark on a new and different path.

Anna originally used the name Cellar Darling for her own solo album in 2013, but it also perfectly encapsulated their vision for this new adventure. “Our music stems from ideas that were kept hidden away in a type of creative cellar, and are now ready to see the light,” Anna explains. “It also visualises our music: the darkness is the cellar, and ‘darling’ represents something light and beautiful.”

The three-piece introduced these spellbinding sounds to the world with their debut album This Is The Sound in 2017. But for The Spell, they decided to take their musical ideas and creativity one step further, and to make a concept album, after the initial idea for The Spell came to Anna randomly while she was out hiking with her father. It tells the tale of an unnamed girl who is birthed into a world that is full of pain, damaged and debilitated by the human beings that inhabit it. We follow her as she searches for meaning in life, when suddenly she meets and falls in love with death – concluding with an ambiguous ending that leaves the listener wondering. Though Anna set out to create abstract rather than autobiographical lyrics, The Spell became a personal journey for her.

On The Spell, Cellar Darling have cemented their sound. Juxtaposing darkness and light, the album soars with melody, pummels with heavy passages and is peppered throughout with progressive flourishes, folky interludes and classical elements, as well as their use of hurdy gurdy and flute. “I think prog fits us best,” says Merlin. “Prog isn’t just about guitar solos, long songs or technical ability: for me, it’s pushing the limits of genre. We don’t want to set any boundaries for ourselves, and to me, that is the definition of progressive music.” His enthusiasm for grandiose rock and prog bands like Queen and Dream Theater shines through in The Spell, and it comes as no surprise that Anna is the child of two professional opera singers, as her stunning vocals glide majestically throughout this ambitious album.

But the ambition of The Spell doesn’t stop with the music and lyrics: Cellar Darling have created an audiobook that’s narrated by Anna to help complement the album’s story, and they enlisted Romanian graphic designer, Costin Chioreanu (Opeth, Ulver, Wardruna and more) to create vivid illustrations for every track, as well as animated videos for a select few.

For Cellar Darling, the intricate artwork is central to the album. “Even now when I am listening to an album, I like to be able to look through the artwork,” Merlin says. “It’s amazing that now we have something like this, that you can actually spend some time looking at while listening to the music.”